From July 1997 to June 1999, the German National Library and the Bavarian State Library in Munich jointly implemented the project “Using digital processing, cataloguing and archiving procedures to develop a distributed information system for legal sources”. This was part of the German Research Foundation’s support programme “Electronic publications in the literature and information provided by research libraries”.

Using selected journals in the public domain, the laws published by the Allied Control Council for the territory of what was to become the Federal Republic of Germany for example, and the Bavarian Gazette of Laws and Ordinances 1945–1949 were among those digitised, catalogued and archived as showcases.

In our catalogue, you can search for “Verteilte digitale Rechtsquellen“ (Distributed digital legal sources) and look up digitised works and bibliographic metadata relating to the era of the Allied Control Council.

You can access and search the “Bayerische Gesetz- und Verordnungsblatt 1945–1949“ (Bavarian Gazette of Laws and Ordinances) 1945–1949 on the website of the Bayerische Staatsbibliothek in Munich.

Tips for searching the distributed digital legal sources

You can choose between a chronological search in every issue of a journal or a content-based search in the data records for legal instruments.

Access to the digitised works is provided through the German National Library’s catalogue. No full-text search function is currently available for these texts.

Chronological search of all journals in the collection

Here you will find detailed information about every journal title and the respective issues and articles. You can browse individual issues in Bookviewer. The article data refers to the corresponding page in the digitised work.

You can use the metadata records to carry out content searches in the catalogue as follows:
go to the “Erweiterte Suche” (“Advanced search” function), select the “Hist. Rechtsquellen (VDR)” (Hist. legal sources (VDR) collection) under “Standorte/Kataloge” (Sites/catalogues) and enter your search terms.

You will also have access to monographic publications on the “Marshallplan“ (Marshall Plan), the “Berlin-Regelung“ (Four-Power Agreement on Berlin) and the “Zwei-plus-Vier“-Vertrag (Treaty on the Final Settlement with Respect to Germany) in our catalogue.